ENGL500: Old English Literature

Specimens of Old English prose and poetry are read in the original language and studied for an appreciation of their literary art. No previous study of Old English is required. The first half of the course is spent on grammar and pronunciation, using prose from the chronicles and other works as examples. Oral recitation is required of all students. Poetry is studied in the second half of the course. Topics include the oral-formulaic tradition, the verse types, and the mixture of Christian and pagan themes characteristic of the literature. 3 sh.

ENGL505: Chaucer

An intensive study of the Canterbury Tales and other works against their literary and social backgrounds, with special attention to Chaucer's language and to the procedures of Chaucerian scholarship. No previous study of Middle English is required. 3 sh.

ENGL508: Shakespeare Studies: Tragedies

Shakespeare's tragic drama against a background of classical and Medieval theories of tragedy, and in relation to the practice of his contemporaries. Consideration is given to Shakespeare's use of plot sources and to Elizabethan theories of rhetoric. 3 sh.

ENGL509: Shakespeare Studies: Comedies

Shakespeare's comic art in the light of comic theory and practice from Aristotle to the present. Areas of analysis include Shakespeare's use of Roman and native English comedy, his language, characters, sources, and the traditions of Shakespearean criticism. 3 sh.

ENGL510: Shakespeare Studies: Histories

A study of the ten English history plays. Shakespeare's use of historical sources and variations from historical fact are examined carefully. Attention is given to scholarship, criticism, and production of the history plays. 3 sh.

ENGL511: Elizabethan and Jacobean Drama

A comprehensive view of the period of the apex of English drama, from 1550 to the closing of the theaters in 1642. Major works by Elizabethan and Jacobean dramatists other than Shakespeare are studied in the light of Medieval English drama and the new Renaissance theories of Shakespeare's contemporaries. Attention is given to changes in subject matter, tone, dramaturgy, and staging during the latter part of the period. 3 sh.

ENGL512: Renaissance Literature I: Prose

Major prose writers of the sixteenth century, including Erasmus, More, Castiglione, Sidney, Lyly, Nashe, and Hooker. Attention is given to the development of satire, romance, the picaresque, and utopian fiction. 3 sh.

ENGL513: Renaissance Literature II: Poetry

A study of English poetry of the sixteenth century, a period of major changes. The principal focus is on poets who contributed to the development of the English lyric (Wyatt, Surrey, Raleigh, Sidney, Shakespeare). The unique poetry of Edmund Spenser, particularly the Faerie Queene, is also examined. 3 sh.

ENGL515: Seventeenth Century Literature: Poetry

The poetry of Donne, Jonson, Herbert, Marvell, and Milton, supplemented by historical and intellectual background and by selections from the works of Vaughan, Traherne, Crashaw, Herrick, Suckling, Lovelace, Carew, and Cowley. Stylistic categories such as the metaphysical, the classical, and the meditative are considered in the light of a close critical analysis of the major poetry. 3 sh.

ENGL516: Seventeenth Century Literature: Prose

English prose between the Elizabethan period and the age of Queen Anne, including the development of prose style and the origins of the short narrative, of scientific writing, and of modern literary criticism. Authors include Milton, Pepys, Bunyan, Walton, Burton, Bacon, Brown, and Aubrey. 3 sh.

ENGL518: Milton

Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained, Samson Agonistes, and some of the minor works are analyzed intensively. Styles, themes and techniques are considered in the light of Milton's life and the political and religious controversies of his time. The poetry is also studied in terms of its relation to Milton's Italian and classical models, his Elizabethan masters, and his contemporaries. 3 sh.

ENGL520: Restoration and Eighteenth-Century Drama

Heroic, comic, and sentimental drama by playwrights from Dryden to Sheridan with emphasis on their reflection of the literary and social climate. Attention is also given to the physical theater and to the composition of the audience during the restoration and 18th century. 3 sh.

ENGL521: The Augustan Age

The literature of the Restoration and early eighteenth century in its cultural contexts. Topics include criticism and aesthetics, satire, the new nature poetry, and the relationship between literary forms and philosophical and critical ideas. Emphasis on the works of Dryden, Swift, Pope, Gay, Addison and Steele, and Thomson. 3 sh.

ENGL525: The English Novel from Defoe to Austen

The rise of the English novel and its various traditions: Comic, realistic, satirical, psychological, and gothic. Authors include Defoe, Richardson, Fielding, Smollett, Sterne, and Austen. 3 sh.

ENGL529: British Romanticism I: Wordsworth and Coleridge

The poetry of the two most important writers of the first generation of the Romantic movement in England. Emphasis is placed on the significance of their poetry in terms of the poets' own personal experience and in the context of the age of democratic and industrial revolution. 3 sh.

ENGL530: British Romanticism II: Byron, Shelley, and Keats

The major works of the second-generation Romantics are studied in relation to the experience of their lives and the movements of their time. Attention is also given to their letters and critical writings. 3 sh.

ENGL531: Victorian Studies I: Prose

The responses of the major prose writers of the period to such issues as the rise of a large working class, the sudden growth of cities, demands for political freedom, and the promises and threats of science. The problems of establishing an aesthetic of nonfiction prose are also considered. Works by Carlyle, Mill, Arnold, Macaulay, Huxley, Newman, Pater, and Wilde. 3 sh.

ENGL532: Victorian Studies II: Novel

The Victorian novel in its historical and cultural contexts, with emphasis on the responses of the most vital art form of the age to the unprecedented changes in English life that took place during the era. Works by Thackeray, Trollope, Dickens, the Brontes, Eliot, and others. 3 sh.

ENGL533: Victorian Studies III: Poetry

The course concentrates on the major mid-Victorian poets, Tennyson, Browning, and Arnold, and to a lesser extent on their successors among the pre-Raphaelites, the aesthetes, and the rhymers. 3 sh.

ENGL535: Turn-of-the-Century British Writers

An examination of British literature in the transitional period between the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Writers might include Hardy, Conrad, Joyce, and Lawrence. Attention is given to the ways in which their works illuminate the movement from Victorian to modernist thinking and demonstrate the relation between literary consciousness and society. 3 sh.

ENGL540: The Modern British Novel

Innovations in characterization, narrative technique, and theme under the impact of major twentieth-century political, economic, and cultural developments. Works by Forster, Huxley, Waugh, Orwell, Greene, Amis, Murdoch, Lessing, and others. 3 sh.

ENGL542: The Irish Renaissance

The Irish contribution to twentieth-century literature and aesthetic theory, specifically to that brand of experimentation, individualism, and internationalism associated with the idea of the modern. Special attention to W. B. Yeats, James Joyce, J. M. Synge, Sean O'Casey, and Frank O'Connor. 3 sh.

ENGL550: Studies in Early American Literature

All major and several minor American writers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries are studied within several contexts: literary, religious, philosophical, and political. Topics include the development of American literature, 1620-1800; the effects of puritanism and deism; the concept of the American dream; the originality of the founding fathers; and the extent to which modern American literature and culture reflect the colonial heritage. 3 sh.

ENGL552: American Poetry to 1912

The continuity of American poetry as a national body of literature, with distinctively American themes, subjects, techniques, and critical theories; the shaping influences of English and continental writers; and the impact of American poets on their European contemporaries. Particular emphasis on Poe, Whitman, Emerson, Melville, Dickinson, Crane, and Robinson. 3 sh.

ENGL555: American Romanticism

An exploration of the Romantic movement in America with attention to transcendentalism and other social movements. Writers might include Brown, Irving, Cooper, Emerson, Thoreau, Fuller, Louisa May Alcott, and Whitman. 3 sh.

ENGL556: Poe, Hawthorne, and Melville

An intensive examination of the writings of the three "Dark Romantics" of the American Renaissance, set against their biographical backgrounds and the literary and historical contexts in which they worked. 3 sh.

ENGL557: American Realism

The development of American realistic fiction, with emphasis on the works of Twain, Howells, and James in relation to their literary heritage and to their social milieu. Attention will also be given to local-color writers, such as Jewett and Freeman, and to naturalist writers, such as Crane, Norris, and London. 3 sh.

ENGL560: Modern American Fiction

After a brief examination of late nineteenth-century realism, the major writers of the twentieth century (up to World War II) are studied with special attention to the critical attitudes of the period and to related scholarship. Authors include Dreiser, Stephen Crane, Sherwood Anderson, Hemingway, and Faulkner. 3 sh.

ENGL561: Modern American Poetry

Beginning with background material on late nineteenth-century poetry, the course examines selected major modern poets. The changing scene in modern poetry is noted, and the reading of contemporary poets is included. Works by Hart Crane, Hilda Doolittle, T. S. Eliot, Robert Lowell, Ezra Pound, Wallace Stevens, and others. 3 sh.

ENGL563: Recent American Fiction

American fiction of approximately the last forty years in the context of American culture and traditions. The course analyzes the characteristics of theme, technique, and sensibility which form the basis of a writer's response to the ambiguities of life in the contemporary world. Works studied might include Bellow, Roth, Didion, Walker, Doctorow, and Morrison. 3 sh.

ENGL564: American Drama

The major American playwrights, such as Eugene O'Neill, Thornton Wilder, Arthur Miller, and Tennessee Williams, are placed in the perspective of their contemporaries and of the traditions of the American stage. 3 sh.

ENGL565: Black American Women Writers

This course explores the writings of Black American women. We will examine the conditions out of which Black women write and the ways in which their works are critiqued and theorized. Discussions will center on questions of race, gender, sexuality, and class; narrative approaches and literary devices; and the Black "womanist" creative tradition. 3 sh.

ENGL571: Teaching Methods (Secondary English)

This graduate level course prepares students to teach English on the secondary level (grades 6-12). ENGL 571 is required for graduate students enrolled in either the Initial Certification or MAT program. The course familiarizes students with the English classroom, the design of lesson and unit plans, writing assignments, and alignment of classroom activities with state curriculum standards and assessments. Students explore and experiment with approaches to teaching selected literary texts, including the adaptation of teaching styles and materials to meet the needs of diverse learners. This course provides a foundational understanding of composition pedagogy, including how to respond to and assess student writing. 4 sh.

ENGL583: Teaching Literature

Current or future teachers of literature become familiar with the process of literary reading; study relevant theory, practice, and research on the teaching of literature; and develop a consistent teaching approach based on a sound understanding of the literary experience. 3 sh.

ENGL586: Teaching Writing and the Basic Writer

This course explores the social, educational and linguistic foundations of writing instruction with special attention to the problems of the basic writer. Practicing and prospective teachers examine the theory, research and practice of writing instruction through a process of inquiry, workshops and work on their own writing. 3 sh.

ENGL588: Research in Writing Studies

An introduction to representative empirical research in composition pedagogy and writing studies. In the first half of the semester students will be introduced to a range of methodologies used in research in writing and composition studies. Inquiry models will include survey, ethnography, case study, the interview. In the second half of the semester students will explore a research question using one or more of the methodologies taught. 3 sh.

ENGL590: Rhetorical Theories and the Teaching of Writing

An inquiry into the rhetorical and theoretical roots of current questions, methods and practices of writing instruction--to investigate the possibility that both teaching writing and writing itself are deeply constructed endeavors, rooted in structures of language, perception, knowing and being that are often discussed in theoretical discourse. 3 sh.

ENGL597: Independent Study in British Literature

The student completes a research project under the supervision of a member of the graduate faculty. This course is designed to allow investigations into areas not covered by regular courses and seminars. Permission of the graduate program coordinator and of the project supervisor is required before registration. May be repeated once for a maximum of 6.0 credits as long as the topic is different. 3 sh.

Prerequisites: Departmental approval.

ENGL598: Independent Study in American Literature

The student completes a research project under the supervision of a member of the graduate faculty. This course is designed to allow investigations into areas not covered by regular courses and seminars. Permission of the graduate program coordinator and of the project supervisor is required before registration. May be repeated once for a maximum of 6.0 credits as long as the topic is different. 3 sh.

Prerequisites: Departmental approval.

ENGL600: Seminar in British Literature

Advanced study of an author, genre, movement, theme, or critical theory. See current announcement for specific topic. May be repeated without limit as long as the topic is different. 3 sh.

ENGL601: Seminar in American Literature

Advanced study of an author, genre, movement, theme, or critical theory. See current announcement for specific topic. May be repeated without limit as long as the topic is different. 3 sh.

ENGL605: Seminar in Literary Research

Instruction and practical experience in such areas as reference sources, textual study, kinds of criticism, and the basics of editing. Recommended for the first or second semester of graduate study. 3 sh.

ENGL698: Master's Thesis

Independent research project done under faculty advisement. Students must follow the MSU Thesis guidelines, which may be obtained from the Graduate School. Students should take ENGL 699 if they don't complete ENGL 698 within the semester. 3 sh.

Prerequisites: Departmental approval.

ENLT512: Literary Criticism to 1800

Plato, Aristotle, Horace, Longinus, and their imitators and interpreters in the Medieval, Renaissance, and Neoclassical periods are studied for those ideas about the nature and value of literature which have been influential in our culture. Considerable attention is given to relating the critical works to the history, art, and principal writings of each period. 3 sh.

ENLT513: Literary Criticism from 1800 to the Present

The break from classical theory (notably by the Romantics) and the search, principally in our own day, for new definitions of the nature and function of literature. Throughout the course, critical theory is related to the history, art, and principal writings of each period. 3 sh.

Prerequisites: ENLT 512.

ENLT514: Theoretical Approaches to Literature

An in-depth study of late 19th and 20th Century theoretical approaches to literature and issues of representation. Critical methodologies to be studied will include: Formalism, Structuralism, Post-Structuralism, Historical Materialism, Psychoanalysis, Feminism, Post-colonialism and New Historicism. Students will study literary and/or filmic texts along with the critical theories. Does not count towards the International Literature specialization, as this is a required core course. 3 sh.

ENLT515: Ancient Tragedy

Selected plays of Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, and Seneca in English translation; origins of Greek and Roman tragedy; religion and myth in tragedy; Aristotelian criticism; stage production; the influence of ancient tragedy on modern literature. 3 sh.

ENLT516: Ancient Comedy

Study of selected plays of Aristophanes, Menander, Plautus, and Terence. Topics include origins and development, staging, and theories of old and new comedy at Athens and of Roman comedy, mime, farce, influences on later comedy. 3 sh.

ENLT517: Ancient Epic

The Iliad, Odyssey, and Aeneid in English translation. Topics include ancient and modern literary criticism of Homer and Virgil; oral versus literary epic; history, folklore, and saga in the ancient epic; basic epic themes (the nature of heroism, fate, people and the gods, etc.); Homeric and Virgilian influence on subsequent literature. 3 sh.

ENLT535: The Enlightenment in Europe

A comparative study of literature and ideas in eighteenth-century Europe, focusing on English, French, and German literature, with some attention to Italian and Spanish. Major literary and philosophical trends are analyzed, including the rational and satirical attack on traditional values and the current of "sensibility" which stressed the powers of the emotions and the senses. Works by Swift, Voltaire, Fielding, Diderot, Johnson, Rousseau, Prevost, Goethe, Lessing, and others. 3 sh.

ENLT536: The Romantic Movement

The origins and development of romanticism in England and Germany are compared with the later triumph of the movement in France. Representative works of Chateaubriand, Goethe, Novalis, Kleist, Hoffmann, Heine, Musset, and Nerval are studied, and their themes compared with those of the English romantics. (Taught in English. Recommended to French majors as a free elective.) Cross listed with French, FREN 536. 3 sh.

ENLT565: Ibsen, Strindberg, and Shaw

Intensive study of three great modern playwrights with an emphasis on dramatic theory and criticism, social context, and literary/theatrical values. 3 sh.

ENLT569: Major Writers of Africa and the African Diaspora

The course will concentrate on literature from sub-Saharan Africa and the African diaspora and may include writers from the Caribbean, Asia, and the Americas. Discussion topics may address issues of place; power and its effects, including colonialism and slavery; gender relations, family structures, religious beliefs; the arts and other cultural expressions. 3 sh.

ENLT570: The Modern Novel

Selected works by European, English, and Latin American masters, illustrating the evolution of the novel during the twentieth century. Works by James, Proust, Kafka, Dos Passos, Woolf, Gide, Mann, Hesse, Stein, Beckett, and others. 3 sh.

ENLT571: Trends in the Contemporary Novel

Significant fiction of the last fifty years from at least five countries. Students will be introduced to a variety of fictional forms which will include work from diverse geographical regions. 3 sh.

ENLT572: Modern Movements in the Arts

An interdisciplinary course which considers theories and practices in the arts across cultures, beginning with classical modernism and its contemporary legacies. Emphasis on literature, with attention to the visual arts and/or music and performance. 3 sh.

ENLT575: Myth: Origins and Development

Selected world mythologies, both Occidental and Oriental, are studied comparatively against a background of theories concerning their origins, development, symbols, and motifs, as well as their significance to literary and interdisciplinary studies. The first part of a two-part course, but may be taken as complete in itself. 3 sh.

ENLT576: Myth: Theory and Practice

The theoretical and mythic backgrounds from ENLT 575 are applied to a study of archetypal and related criticism and to literary analysis. The creative process and the origins of literary form, theme, character, genre, imagery, and tone are intensively explored. 3 sh.

Prerequisites: ENLT 575.

ENLT577: Film Studies

On a rotating basis, different cultural, historical, and aesthetic aspects of American, British, or world film will be examined. See current announcement. Students may repeat Film Studies so long as the topic is different each time. 3 sh.

ENLT599: Independent Study: International Literature

The student completes a research project under the supervision of a member of the graduate faculty. This course is designed to allow investigations into areas not covered by regular courses and seminars. Permission of the graduate program coordinator and of the project supervisor required before registration. May be repeated once for a maximum of 6.0 credits as long as the topic is different. 3 sh.

Prerequisites: Departmental approval.

ENLT602: Seminar in International Literature

Advanced study of an author, genre, movement, theme or critical theory. See current announcement for specific topic. Students may be repeated without limit as long as the topic is different. 3 sh.

Prerequisites: Departmental approval.

ENWR583: Teaching Literature through Writing

The course considers the best theories and practices for teaching writing through literature. Students will also examine the social and historical intersection of literary studies and writing pedagogy. 3 sh.

ENWR586: Teaching Writing and the Basic Writer

This course explores the social, educational and linguistic foundations of writing instruction with special attention to the problems of the basic writer. Practicing and prospective teachers examine the theory, research and practice of writing instruction through a process of inquiry, workshops and work on their own writing. 3 sh.

ENWR588: Research in Writing Studies

An introduction to representative empirical research in composition pedagogy and writing studies. In the first half of the semester students will be introduced to a range of methodologies used in research in writing and composition studies. Inquiry models will include survey, ethnography, case study, the interview. In the second half of the semester students will explore a research question using one or more of the methodologies taught. 3 sh.

ENWR590: Graduate Writing Seminar

Writing in one or more of the following: essay, scholarly research, autobiography, creative non-fiction, poetry, drama, screenwriting. May be repeated three times for a maximum of 12.0 credits as long as the topic is different. 3 sh.

Prerequisites: Departmental approval.

ENWR598: Rhetorical Theories and the Teaching of Writing

An inquiry into the rhetorical and theoretical roots of current questions, methods and practices of writing instruction--to investigate the possibility that both teaching writing and writing itself are deeply constructed endeavors, rooted in structures of language, perception, knowing and being that are often discussed in theoretical discourse. 3 sh.

ENWR600: Seminar in Writing Studies

Advanced study of a topic, issue or theory in the field of Writing Studies. See current announcement for specific topic. Students may repeat the Writing Studies Seminar up to 2 times for a total of 9 credits as long as the topic is different each time. 3 sh.